WEYBURN – Over 1,270 ballots were cast from 22 countries in the 38th annual James Weir People’s Choice art exhibition, and the top three winners were announced on Friday evening along with an honourable mention.
Kelly Stephenson won first place for the second time, for her painting, “The Turn”, of a freight train going through the Rocky Mountains near Moraine Lake.
Second went to Christopher Borshowa for his photo, “Fallen”, and third went to Olha Matiusheva, for her beaded sculpture, “Birch”.
The honourable mention went to Sara Irwin for her glass mosaic piece, “Flowers Galore”. Curator Regan Lanning noted that her work was only about 20 votes behind the third place winner.
A total of 1,276 ballots were counted, and 185 ballots were spoiled and not counted.
Lanning explained ballots were spoiled if they did not vote for three pieces, or if they were not signed.
She also noted one person voted 23 times and signed his name each time. “Sadly, none of his ballos were counted,” she said.
Of the ballots which were counted, 297 were made online, and votes were cast from a total of 22 countries, including Canada, the U.S., Australia, France, Scotland, Ireland, England, Wales, Lithuania, Mexico, the Czech Republic, Indonesia, Italy, Germany, Romania, Turkey, Brazil, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, China and the Ivory Coast.
Lanning provided tours to 24 classrooms and she gave two noon-hour tours to the public, along with guided tours to a few community groups.
“We discussed themes, principles of design, and we even tackled what makes a work of art successful,” said Lanning.
Stephenson explained that she and her husband have visited the Rockies three times, staying in Banff, Canmore and Calgary, and she took reference photos of the scene she painted after her husband drove her up a mountain road to get the right angle on the curve in the train tracks.
She noted that the main difference between her painting and the photos she took is she likes to highlight shadows and light, and she layered the colours in the train engine to make it stand out.
In her acceptance, Stephenson noted she had donated a painting to the City of Weyburn’s Permanent Art Collection for the opening of the Weyburn Art Gallery, and was very proud to have made that contribution.
“I feel so delighted as a newcomer here,” she said, noting she came to Weyburn four years ago from China. “Art is my emotional wall, and is my English language in good expression.”
For his photo, Borshowa combined a number of images, and printed it on brushed aluminum “to give it that texture,” which helped to illuminate the subject as one looks at it from different angles.
Matiusheva explained she used beads, wire and cement to create her tree sculpture, and said this was the same kind of tree she saw in her home country of Ukraine, as well as here in Canada.
This was her second time to enter the People’s Choice, and the second time her piece placed third. The win was bittersweet and provided mixed emotions for her, as it made her mother happy, but Matiusheva said it was a moment of happiness in a very difficult situation as her mother is still in Ukraine.
Her mom and other relatives are all right, but they are not safe, she added.
“I didn’t expect I would take anything, there is so much amazing stuff here,” said Matiusheva, and noted she used to make these beaded sculptures more in Ukraine.
Irwin explained her piece is glass-on-glass, different from stained glass which uses lead to solder the glass pieces together. She used silicone to fit her glass pieces together, and put her piece on a mirror, so it doesn’t have to be placed in a window but uses a room’s natural light.
“It’s quite therapeutic for me,” said Irwin, noting she has been making these glass mosaic pieces for about a year now.
